This invention relates to a recording and reproducing apparatus and to a method of recording and reproducing contents.
Most of the conventional portable audio players which have a recording and reproducing function use such medium as a magnetic tape, a magneto-optical disk and others, and these players have a rotary drive mechanism and accordingly have such problems as the electric power consumption being relatively large, and there being a limit to the miniaturization of the device.
In recent years, MP3 players have been developed using an audio-compression technique of MPEG-1 audio layer 3 which is capable of compressing the data amount to 1/10 of an audio CD (compact disk) without deteriorating the sound quality. Since the data can be stored in a semiconductor memory, MP3 player is power saving and small. A light and compact portable audio player dealing with audio data for MP3, however, has a difficulty.
The difficulty occurs when the user tries to record new audio data in this portable audio player. It is necessary to connect the portable audio player with another device to reproduce content, and then to have the device start reproduction of a content and at the same time have the portable audio player start recording of another content. It is more troublesome than expected.
Concretely, in order to store (record) audio data in a portable audio player, in addition to the portable audio player, a device to reproduce audio data, for example, a CD player and others, is necessary. An output terminal of the device to reproduce audio data and an input terminal of the portable audio player are connected by means of a cable. When a digital signal is used, a cable for a digital signal such as an optical cable is employed, whereas when an analog signal is used, a cable for an analog signal is used for connection.
Storage medium for recording content, such as a semiconductor memory card, are set in the portable audio player, and the player stands ready for storage (recording).
The reproducing device prepares to reproduce content, and when the reproducing device gets ready, the storing (recording) operation of the portable audio player is started, and then the reproduction operation of audio data by means of the reproducing device is carried out. Thus, the data is stored (recorded) in the storage medium. When the recording is done by means of a digital signal, it is possible to start the storage (recording) automatically if only audio data is reproduced.
In order to finish the storage, first the storage of the portable audio player is completed, and then the reproduction of the content reproducing device is completed. When a digital signal is used for storage, it is possible to complete the storage of the portable audio player only by finishing the audio data reproduction operation of the reproducing device.
In the above-described method, however, each time new content is stored in the storage medium, it is necessary to prepare both the content reproducing device and the portable audio player.
When a personal computer is used as a content reproducing device, it is possible for the personal computer to control the start or stop of the recording of the portable audio player, but it is not possible for the portable audio player to control the personal computer; accordingly, when the user records content in the storage medium, the user needs to operate both the content reproducing device and the portable audio player in time to each other.
Since the user needs to set up a number of operation steps to store content, such as the connection of two devices by means of a cable, the reproduction and recording operations of respective devices, and others, it takes time and knowledge to operate the devices; therefore, only a limited number of users are capable of operating the devices.
Because the portable audio player with an insufficient CPU resource is not capable of executing a recording mode and a reproducing mode at the same time, the user needs to stop the reproduction to record audio data and to stop the recording to reproduce audio data. Accordingly, the user cannot listen to songs which the user wants to in storing the content, and cannot store the data in listening to songs. It is inconvenient.
As described above, conventionally, in order to record new content from an audio data reproducing device to a portable audio player, it is necessary to connect the two devices and operate the devices separately in time to each other. That is, it is necessary to execute the reproduction operation of the reproducing device, and to execute the recording operation of the portable audio player. Thus, the conventional device needs a troublesome operation to record content; hence it is desirable to improve the operationality.
In addition, in recording content such as audio, it was possible to listen to the content to be recorded by means of a monitor, but it was impossible to listen to audio data which the user wants to listen to other than the content being recorded because it was impossible to record or reproduce two contents at the same time.